The premier HRIS solution provider in Sri Lanka, hSenid Business Solutions signed with the Institute of Personnel Management Sri Lanka (IPM) for another consecutive year, as the ‘Technology partner’ for the National HR Conference 2013. hsenid has been a strategic partner for IPM for this event, in the aim of taking HR to greater heights in Sri Lanka.

This year, the Conference will be held on 18 and 19 June, at Water’s Edge, with the theme: ‘In search of HR excellence’. This year’s conference will feature many eminent and world renowned speakers who will enhance the clarity of the conference. Globally renowned HR experts will deliver keynote address to over 900 HR professionals, who are expected to participate. The upcoming National HR conference and exhibition, the foremost HR event in Sri Lanka, is specially designed to bring new heights of human capital management to meet the challenges in a booming economy.

hSenid CEO and founder Dinesh Saparamadu mentioned: “hsenid is happy to be a partner with IPM this year, and we aspire taking HR to the forefront in the context of its true meaning, towards enhancing productivity through people.”

An ISO 9001:2008 certified CMIi level 3 Microsoft gold certified partner, hSenid has deployed customised solutions to a large customer base in Sri Lanka and overseas, addressing the wide, varied and specific requirements of their clients. hSenid Business solutions have been proven across Asia Pacific, Africa, Europe, India and United States with R&D centres in Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

Brandix recently felicitated 39 Associates and six Supervisors at the Group’s annual Employee of the Year (EOY) Awards ceremony held at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium. The gala awards presentation, followed by pulsating musical entertainment by some of the country’s top artistes, brought to a close an activity packed day for nearly 5,000 Brandix team members who also witnessed the Men’s and Women’s finals of the Brandix ‘Rasadiya Kusalaanaya’ (Mercury Trophy) Volleyball Tournament and a demonstration of mechanical and technical skills by the winners of the ‘Mech Challenge’ – a competition organised for the Group’s mechanics.

Top apparel exporter Brandix celebrated the completion of another year of high achievement by honouring 47 of the Group's best performing employees and supervisors of the large clusters at a spectacular multifaceted festival in Colombo recently.

Winners at the Brandix Employee of the Year/Supervisor of the Year awards receive their medals from family members at the Brandix Rasadiya Mangalya

The event, titled 'Rasadiya Mangalya' (Mercury festival) saw employees in the associate, staff and supervisor categories from Brandix business units in Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh, rewarded for their performances and contributions to the Group's growth in 2012.

Each 'Employee of the Year' and 'Supervisor of the Year' received a handsome trophy of appreciation as well as a company-sponsored study tour to China, Vietnam, India or Bangladesh and in Sri Lanka for those attached to the Group's overseas plants.

"The Brandix Group comprises of over 43,000 employees at 42 manufacturing plants in Sri Lanka, at a 1,000 acre industrial park in India and a large operation in Bangladesh," said Ishan Dantanarayana, the Group's Chief People Officer. "Clearly, people are our biggest asset and motivating and rewarding performance is a key to success. Harnessing the collective team synergy to create a winning spirit is also critical to our business growth.

That is why this event is one of the largest on the Brandix calendar." Attended by over 5,000 people, the Brandix 'Rasadiya Mangalya' began with the Men's and Women's finals of the Brandix 'Rasadiya Kusalanaya' (Mercury Trophy) annual Volleyball Tournament for non-executive associates, the finals of the 'Rasadiya Gee Tharuwa' (Brandix Mercury Star) talent contest conducted across the Group over several months, and the presentation of awards to the winners of the Brandix 'Mech Challenge' -- a competition organised to enable the Group's mechanical and engineering associates to demonstrate their mechanical and technical skills.

Musical entertainment for the event was provided by the superstar duo Bhathiya and Santhush, as well as by the associates who won the Brandix Rasadiya Gee Tharuwa singing competition.

Colonel Sujith Jayasekara, Group Human Resources Manager of Brandix said the 41 Employees of the Year and six Supervisors of the Year were selected through a comprehensive process covering contributions to key business performance measures as well as additional engagements that bring value to associates as well as the business.

"As in the case of last year, the inclusion of recipients from our Group's offshore factory locations in our industrial zone in India as well as in Bangladesh, was one of the features of the event.

This year, we further strengthened the event by converting it to a festival," he said.

The Business Leaders’ Forum 2013, organised by the institute of Personnel Management (IPM) will be held on 4 April 2013, at the Galadari Hotel Colombo, from 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. The theme for this year’s forum is, ‘Integrating human resource management across disciplines.’

The forum will be moderated by University of Sri Jayewardenepura Management Consultant Postgraduate Institute Management (PIM) Senior Faculty Member Dr Ajantha Dharmasiri.

The Business Leader’s forum is an annual event organised by the IPM focusing on the business needs of the hour mainly opportune and pertinent topics related to management and HR in terms of organisational growth, strategies and competitiveness.This year’s forum topic spotlights the importance of a symbiosis between the different disciplines within an organisation to work towards a joint effort in achieving the goals of the organisation.

The different disciplines within an organisation are interconnected thereby benefiting through mutual support. That in return strengthens the organisation. The Human Resource Management (HRM) focus is on the people aspect of all disciplines, thus providing support to all the departments.

And all managers within the organisation play a significant role as a manager of ‘people’, necessitating all managers of all departments to play contributing roles as HR managers.

In an extremely competitive globalised economy, success of the organisation depends on the smooth functioning of its inner mechanism, which makes the proper integration of HRM across disciplines vital in sustaining a business.

The chosen topic, as well as the contributions towards the discussion from a panel of experienced business gurus of the country, will be of much interest to all business leaders and managers.

The Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) inaugurated a Management Development Program (MDP) for the second batch of Managers of John Keells Holdings PLC. Management Development Programs are designed to develop and sharpen an identified set of competencies of a particular group of employees.

The programs are carefully designed and tailor-made to meet the training and developmental needs of today’s managers who have to function in complex and dynamic environments and work settings. The batch of managers of John Keells represents a number of companies and functions. An identified set of cross-cutting key managerial competencies formed the intent and content of the Management Development Program for John Keells.

The PIM pioneered the MBA program in Sri Lanka some two and a half decades ago and continues to conduct the leading MBA program in the country. The Management Development Programs (MDPs) are an important offering from PIM which are of a short duration and are designed to meet the particular training needs of a given set of managers.

Key business representatives from across Colombo were treated to a briefing session from renowned international Corporate Performance Management (CPM) expert and CAMMS Managing Director Joe Collins at Sequel, Cinnamon Grand Colombo, on 5 December.

Collins presented to an audience in excess of 100 attendees on the topic of ‘How to Positively Impact Your Profitability with Effective Governance and Reporting,’ providing insights into the essential requirements for sustainable profitability in business.

Local businesses Brandix, Etisalat, CEAT, Odel, DFCC, Hemas, John Keells, Expolanka and many others were advised that in today’s high pressure global marketplace traditional approaches commonly adopted by medium to large private sector organisations are by and large inadequate. Collins went on to illustrate that the reliance on financials and disconnected measures and scorecards alone could be counterproductive to long term profitability.

Collins provided attendees with practical examples on the great debate surrounding the primacy of strategy versus execution and reinforced that good strategy is the foundation for success when its execution is supported by sophisticated technology.

Collins is a keen advocate of using technology to streamline corporate performance requirements and reduce waste. As Collins commented in his session, “alignment and accountability of resources through an effective CPM system is critical for organisational success”.

After a short Planning Master Class exploring the importance of the right planning framework and tools to support the process, attendees were invited to enjoy a networking session with fantastic food and wine.

“We were delighted to welcome a number of key businesses to our CEO Briefing to discuss the current over-reliance on financial data alone for CPM and decision making – in my experience it really is potentially dangerous and it was interesting to discuss this in light of the Sri Lankan and indeed global marketplace,” Collins said,

Also in attendance was Deputy Minister of Technology and Research Faiszer Musthapha.

Collins is a Chief Executive (with both public and private sector experience) and an internationally recognised expert on corporate performance management. As a successful entrepreneur, he works with organisations across the globe, helping them design, develop and implement their planning, measurement and reporting frameworks to drive corporate accountability, transparency, and profitability.

In high demand for his strategic knowledge and workshop facilitation skills, Collins has recently been working with organisations throughout Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and North America.

CAMMS develops, implements, and supports its world leading integrated suite of Corporate Performance Management (CPM) and Business intelligence (Bl) solutions to enable enterprises to plan, execute and drive their business from strategy to reality.

Established in Australia in 1996, CAMMS has grown significantly to become an international company with clients and offices located in Australia, New Zealand, North America, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom.

With accounting and finance being essential back-office services in the current highly competitive economy where outsourcing industries grow at a rapid pace, countries like Sri Lanka stands to benefit greatly if the talents of finance professionals are harnessed to be on par with international trends.

Identified as a remedy against growing costs and inefficiencies of almost every business activity as well as the remedy against the high costs of internal accounting, departments are looking to outsource the services of accounting professionals from the world over. “This has created many opportunities for countries like Sri Lanka, which has been progressively making a name for itself as a successful outsource centre,” ACCA Executive Director Neil Stevens said.Noting that companies that treat accounting and finance as their main business activity will do everything that is necessary to make it efficient – particularly in specialised areas such as finance management, tax advisory, staff and payroll affairs – Stevens stated that it is one the best solutions for new companies concentrating on business development.

“Therefore companies that require such services will undoubtedly look for an accountant who has a globally recognised qualification. We at ACCA are confident that we can provide a foundation for future accounting professionals in the country to provide the necessary services to those companies.”In Sri Lanka, there is an increased emphasis on roles that support strategy, decision making and operations. A focus on finance as a more business advisory and partnering role is now seen with finance being integrated within organisations.

Forces such as globalisation, increased competition and developments in IT have increased demand for more collaboration and value added input from the finance arm, and have enabled accountants to interact better with the business.

Collaborations between finance professionals and the business can now be achieved through cross-functional projects and initiatives, while virtual communication allows employees to interact across departmental and geographical boundaries. This again is an area that ACCA professionals can use their knowledge to assist finance professionals in the country through their extensive network and expertise.

The rise of integrated reporting – which merges financial and sustainability data – poses challenges as well as opportunities when looking for solutions in execution, engagement and education, which is another area that ACCA is seriously looking at.

“We strongly believe that integrated reporting doesn’t only demonstrate the linkages between an organisation’s strategy, governance and financial performance and the social, environmental and economic context within which it operates, but also works as an integrator of sustainability into a company’s core business,” Stevens expressed.

Speaking further, he acknowledged that in the present context, being a CFO is a challenging task which needs to be balanced accordingly. “CFOs need to improve on their multitasking ability – from reporting and controls to finance operations or strategy and execution and address the challenges that their finance functions faces. At the same time, CFOs also face never-ending pressure to cut costs, grow revenue, and tighten controls while assuming unprecedented personal risk for their company’s mistakes.”

Stevens listed four key roles that a CFO is required to play in a business context – the role of a steward (protect and preserve the assets of the organisation), operator (balance capabilities, costs and service levels to fulfil the finance organisation’s responsibilities), strategist (provide financial leadership in determining strategic business direction and align financial strategies), and catalyst (stimulate behaviours across the organisation to achieve strategic and financial objectives).

The key areas CFOs operate in today are the fields of investor relations, external reporting and assurance and operational controllership and financial risk management. Another emerging trend in business is sustainability: the growth of integrated corporate reports, in which sustainability data is reported alongside traditional financial reporting data.

He asserted: “The CFO role of the future will be unique, requiring a special blend of capabilities and skills.”Outlining the competencies which he believes will be essential for accountants in the future, Stevens listed out functional competencies, personal competencies, broad-business-perspective competencies and integration.

“I believe that today’s accountants should have more than just the core competencies in accounting and general business that are necessary for a successful accounting career,” he said. “For instance, the ACCA qualification includes study in the following areas: financial accounting, management accounting, accounting information systems, financial, operational, and information systems auditing and taxation.” This is because today, many value added services are required by accountants in the form of decision-making abilities, strategic and critical thinking, leadership, and more.”

Stevens went on to explain that ethics and the importance of ethical decision making are increasingly significant because of the pressures placed on business managers by stockholders, creditors, and other parties affected by financial performance.

Therefore ACCA has ensured that this is an important area that is covered in the syllabus In terms of ethics, ACCA has an entire module on this, which gives the students exposure to a range of ethical perspectives and includes several self-tests which require them to reflect on their own ethical behaviour. ACCA also believes that professional values, ethics and governance are essential skills needed for accountancy as the profession moves towards strengthened codes of conduct, regulation and legislation. The aim of the professional ethics module is to help students develop ethical knowledge, sensitivity and judgment which can then be applied in the exams and the workplace.

Stevens concluded by pointing out that in terms of developing the right skills that are in line with the current requirements of the finance profession, ACCA constantly updates its tuition providers with the relevant training they require to impart this knowledge to their students in turn.

They host conferences and training programs that give them guidance on all the important aspects that are both relevant and important to tuition providers. The interactive sessions with the trainers draw out problems, suggestions and ideas from the participants and make them understand how to successfully tackle their problems and overcome them in a successful manner.

The ACCA facilitators also share their thoughts and analyses of situations and provide many valuable insights that were very relevant to each of the markets and also focus on better methods of teaching and how best to market the study courses.

ACCA also has discussions on best practices for teaching, assessment methodologies and the examiner feedback received on student exam performance which is very useful, as well as forums on identifying challenges and methods of how to initiate solutions to help improve exam performance.